Rukuhia aircraft dump

[curtiss]

Mar 17, 2020 14:35:55 GMT 12 emron said:

Mar 7, 2020 18:27:47 GMT 12 curtiss said:

I have a pair of Walrus undercarriage legs available if anyone has an interest in such things.....

I too know the whereabouts of an oleo or two. They must to be the only abundant Walrus parts around the country, as everything else seems to be as rare as the proverbial hen’s tusk. The Walrus is credited with being the first British military aircraft to have a fully retractable undercarriage and enclosed cockpit. I took that as a good enough reason to read up the manual about the retraction mechanism and see if a working example would be feasible. It’s a fairly simple method, the main leg strut is connected at the top to a lever on which it pivots through about 90 degrees and is driven by a hydraulic ram under pressure from a hand pump. The leg is retained in the up and down positions by spring loaded locking pins and is supported through the movement by a radius arm. I don’t know where any of those other original parts are so all I plan to do further in the meantime is just take measurements and make some scale drawings of the layout. I would be greatly interested to hear if any of those other parts still exist around NZ though.

I know where there is half a float as well. It would be good if someone could collect all the Walrus bits in one location.

[agile]

The owner says "Gave the panels a scrub. It seems the red paint was brushed on. When I dug the spars out they were fairly well buried so I only scratched the surface. There may well be more stuff buried but would need a digger. There were car and truck parts plus general farm crap. Trees and scrub had grown up through everything. Will work on getting back there but things have changed since I was first there." With regard to Mike's comment above, is there any interest in centralising the collection of Walrus bits? We *might* be able to take them (we'd have to discuss it internally - space is pretty tight) but we definitely don't have the resources to move them. We already have some big stuff in the NI that we need to find a way to move south. It's also highly unlikely we'd be able to do anything more than hold them in store, since our volunteers and money are already thinly spread.

More photos of the mystery panels:
41.

42.

43.

44.

45.


Cheers
A

[emron]

Mar 17, 2020 16:18:52 GMT 12 curtiss said:

Mar 17, 2020 14:35:55 GMT 12 emron said:

I too know the whereabouts of an oleo or two. They must to be the only abundant Walrus parts around the country, as everything else seems to be as rare as the proverbial hen’s tusk. The Walrus is credited with being the first British military aircraft to have a fully retractable undercarriage and enclosed cockpit. I took that as a good enough reason to read up the manual about the retraction mechanism and see if a working example would be feasible. It’s a fairly simple method, the main leg strut is connected at the top to a lever on which it pivots through about 90 degrees and is driven by a hydraulic ram under pressure from a hand pump. The leg is retained in the up and down positions by spring loaded locking pins and is supported through the movement by a radius arm. I don’t know where any of those other original parts are so all I plan to do further in the meantime is just take measurements and make some scale drawings of the layout. I would be greatly interested to hear if any of those other parts still exist around NZ though.

I know where there is half a float as well. It would be good if someone could collect all the Walrus bits in one location.

I’m only familiar with the few Walrus parts that MOTAT hold and don’t know what artefacts that the Air Force Museum or the Navy Museum might have on display or in storage. If the owner is wanting to let the wing parts go then all three might consider them relevant to their collections. I’d hate to see them sold overseas. I’ve just finished watching a video of the Walrus catapult and recovery procedures. The ships carried spare wings during operations and they were stowed upright against the hangar bulkhead. I think the best way to present the parts would be to straighten them and incorporate them into a partial wing rebuild. A lower wing with the wheel recess, bomb racks and float would have the most appeal and like the RAAF one the bottom surface could be clad in clear film so the internal features remain visible. It could be mounted vertical against a wall at eye level to minimise space. I’m thinking of putting a proposal to my Museum about that and if it was to represent Walrus NZ158 / ZK-AMJ then that would further complement their existing flying boat display. But there’s far too many more serious things to be taken care of for now and I’ll wait for an appropriate time.

[denysjones]

I've just caught up with this and looking at the two photos above I'm struck by a couple of things about the bulged insert in the panel.

It bulges inwards which says it is to accommodate something external to the a/c which should give some clues.

Also I wonder if it is some sort of mod as it is superimposed on the skin and riveted through that whereas I would expect an original production item to have been inserted inside the skin like the stringers..but perhaps not.

[agile]

I would say the blister is bulging outward with the stringers and what looks to be a flange for a removable panel riveted to the inside. The rivets on the blister look like pops where the rest are solid, which might lend weight to the idea it's a mod. What about narrowing down the possibilities:
Cockpit green internal paint says military, can we rule out Mosquito (hopefully I'd recognise it), Hudson (ditto Denys), P-40 (ditto Mike), Sunderland (ditto Ron)?

[Dave Homewood]

Aircraft types known to have been scrapped at Rukuhia include:

Corsair
P-40
Hudson
Ventura
Avenger
Catalina
Possibly Harvard?

Not sure if any remains of Sunderland or Mosquito were smelted there. Mossie seems unlikely since they only wanted aluminium, all the steel and other metals were scrap and dumped. There's not a lot of aluminium in a Mossie compared with the other types.

[madmac]

The water on the blisters got me for a bit too.

The Vee type hat stringers should narrow it down.

A quick flick through the Catalina repair manual didn't show any stringer profiles anything ever near it.

Interesting to note there are two identical panels both of the same hand, with similar but different cuts in them (maybe the panels were removed as part of an aircraft modification or just cut to get a high value item out). So I guess that means the there were at-least two airframes.

Given the presence of the Walrus spar does that mean this was a Service dumping site so subject to material from repairs and overhauls.

[agile]

Does anyone have a closeup of the underside of an Oxford fuselage aft of the wing? There seem to be similar blisters either side... I know it isn't on Dave's list, but neither was the Walrus so maybe madmac is onto something. Just a thought.

[Dave Homewood]

I have just had a call from Don Subritzky who confirms that the mystery part with the bulge is "without a shadow of a doubt" an Avro Anson fuel tank cover. He added that if possible it would be good to have because he only has two of them for his Anson project, and he needs four of them.

Don said that he believes Mr Asplin was collecting Anson parts at one stage, so this may not have been there to scrap but actually as part of a collection for a better purpose.

Don also says there were certainly Walrus parts around Rukuhia because apparently Ross Jowitt found some tailplanes there, which went to the RAAF Museum he believes, and one of them may have gone to England. He said a Walrus engine cover was also found there at some stage.

[agile]

Thanks for that Dave. I have passed Don's details on to the owner. Great that these bits are potentially finding homes.

Cheers
A

[43willys]

somewhere I have a photo of the Walrus tail plane , Ross J got it off my dad. I will go through my boxes photos and see if I can find it .

[30sqnatc]

Pity we don't have an equivalent of the UK TImeteam TV programme to do one of their expedited digs.

[saratoga]

Just imagine the OSH and resource consent procedure for that. Not to mention appeasing the Taniwhas.

[43willys]

Walrus parts front of photo that Ross J picked up from Dad around 1977

[Deleted]

And a Catalina blister!

[pjw4118]

Here are some interesting bits probably from Rukuhia.
Photographed at the museum outside of Cambrisge in 2014

[camtech]

Fascinating place, that Tauwhare Military Museum - well worth a visit.

[axelford]

Any info about where the turrets are from?

[Dave Homewood]

The perspex one is a top turret from a Ventura, and the birdcage turret is from an Oxford, I believe.

[shorty]

Apr 26, 2020 15:17:38 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

The perspex one is a top turret from a Ventura, and the birdcage turret is from an Oxford, I believe.

or an Anson